I had fun with this one. Looking over older work I saw a story weaving between a few different poems and so I threaded a needle and sewed them together. The drawing is an old one too. Newer than the poems, it is cut from the same cloth.

I very much like: (his words) “dangled from her like wind chimes with little meaning,” and am especially fond of the final stanza, which reads like a dark little fairy-tale filled with remedies, elixirs – and gumption.

Oh…thank you for this Peri. It is a dark little fairy tale. “Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing…” Although the lovage root and vervain worked well in this case…!

I love the delicate balance of this piece – and the gentle streaming of the words into a redemptive finale… and yes, one can sense the fun you had while doing this… but one can also sense, the joy you felt in letting go, finding your space even after the ‘invasion’.

Your pastel is captivating, faces out of my dreams, brave colour that shouldn’t work but does. Your poem is also captivating and haunting and needs and deserves to be read out loud in a smoky Parisian bar accompanied by a one eyed sax player…

I’ve been on your reading list and I’ve had email subscriptions for a long time now but this has to be my favorite poem. I love the story that gets painted in my mind and how true I know the feeling is.

Hello, Jana. I wanted to let you know that I was drawn to the pastel painting. It held my attention. I made several passes at the poem, too. In Reader, the formatting doesn’t show up. I wish they’d fix that because now I’m seeing this on your site and it is fantastic. I enjoyed the layers of elegance, complemented by your captivating writing style.

Ah Chris…as it happens I was on my way to the library after reading your comment. Thank you for the heads up! She’s now on my radar. Books are requested. (Small library) I love hunkering down with a new to me author.

Well, I certainly enjoyed reading this and then referring to the images again. & repeating. Very interesting how you describe the experience. Beautiful actually. Beautiful verse. Love the look on her face. Like he’s doing a real crazy-making number on her. So you’re doing homeopathy with his words? A touch of the illness is the cure? A solitary wolf becomes predictable. No pulling one over on you.

Bingo!…I wish you could hear me laughing, Steven. A homeopathic concept but the cure is working with a more spirited substance than a sugar pill….but you have decidedly grasped the intention here.
Your comments on the drawing crack me up…they’re perfect.